New Mexico State Question

The question is, of course, "Red or Green?", refering to the two types of chile.

Red chile is the dried, powdered chile pepper, not to be confused with "chili powder", which is some awful Texan invention akin to curry powder. Influenced by a good cuisine, a haphazard attempt is made to simulate the flavor for foreigners, chili powder fails miserably at being anything at all like red chile.

Green chile is the fresh peppers themselves, usually roasted over a gas fire and peeled of the burnt skin. Confusingly, fresh green chile pods can actually be red, as the red color only indicates a greater degree of ripeness. I actually prefer the red green chiles, as they tend to be sweeter.

Fire roasting can be somewhat impractical on a very large scale, so several of the larger chile packaging companies steam peel their chiles. I believe that produces an inferior, though tolerable, flavor.

7Ghent, in is expansion on my comments, left out a food upon which one might find red chile powder lightly sprinkled: Vanilla Ice Cream. It's tremendous!

To expand upon cardinal's definition of red chile, I'd also add that red chile is made when chile pods are allowed to fully mature, at which point they turn a deep red color. The pods are then picked, dried, and finally crushed, mixed with water, spices (usually garlic and oregano) and cooked. The result is a thick sauce that is then integrated into such dishes as enchiladas.